Patrons are in for a bumpy ride at `Quake'

Chris Jones, Tribune arts reporterCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Expressing a woman's personal journey for happiness in terms of a geographic jaunt across a torrid American landscape is a pervasive contemporary theatrical metaphor. From "On the Verge," to "The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild," playwrights have imagined tortured heroines trekking over terra incognita in search of love and happiness.

Melanie Marnich's "Quake," which I first saw in its world premiere at the Actors Theatre of Louisville two years ago, is an episodic and self-consciously whimsical work very much in that tradition.

The play, which is receiving its Chicago premiere at the American Theater Company, follows the dreams and landscapes of Lucy, a lonely but self-aware single who journeys in and out of the arms of various losers, becomes obsessed with a female serial killer, and tries time after time to find the kind of uppercase "Big Love" that could solve all her problems.

Marnich's work was not especially well received in its initial production -- it's a lively and appealing travel-drama in places, but its lyricism tends to feel forced and its dramatic structure meanders in such a way that it can feel a good bit longer than its 90-minute running time. The high-tech Louisville premiere suffered also from a surfeit of the cute.

I had great hopes for Bill Payne's Chicago production. "Quake" is, at its heart, a personal and simple play and Payne's directing usually is good at cutting through pretension and finding the center of a piece. Furthermore, Cheryl Graeff (who plays Lucy) generally is a warm and empathetic actress.

But on opening night, things did not gel in the necessary way.

Payne and his set designer, B. Emil Boulos, didn't find the right visual metaphor for Lucy's quest, and things seemed overly dreary and dense. Transitions and light cues looked under-rehearsed and awkward. And despite the best efforts of both Graeff and Kate Buddeke (who plays a whacko character called That Woman) the production lacks a sense of surety, purpose and security.

There are flashes of an engaging Lucy -- and the odd rumble of a life-changing truth -- but the Earth never leaves its regular orbit.